


Innocence

by morganoconner



Series: She Walks in Beauty [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen, MTF Stiles, Parenthood, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-26
Updated: 2014-04-26
Packaged: 2018-01-20 21:31:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1526486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morganoconner/pseuds/morganoconner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Claudia wonders, sometimes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Innocence

**Author's Note:**

> A bit of a prequel to _All That's Best of Dark and Bright_ , written for ratherastory as a thank you for the incredible support she offered while I was ~~panicking over~~ writing that story. I mean to write several future timestamps, because I'm just not ready to let go yet, but this one demanded to be written first.
> 
> As an aside, I have been overwhelmed by so many of the comments and messages I've received for _Dark and Bright_ , some of which reduced me to real tears. I will never be able to adequately express how much they mean to me. Thank you so much, to everyone who read it. ♥

Claudia's son is ten years old, and he would rather dance than play baseball. He would rather watch her put on her make-up than watch his father work on the Jeep. He intensely dislikes wearing suits, but for Halloween last year he begged her to let him wear a fifties-era poodle skirt, claiming _no one else will think of something so cool!_

None of these things inherently point to anything being wrong, but they are enough to make Claudia wonder, sometimes.

He has never said anything to help her know for sure. When he was very young, he had a penchant for dressing up in her clothes and asking to wear her make-up, but she thought it was just a childhood phase, something he would grow out of. Perhaps that was her mistake, but then it suddenly stopped two years ago, and she decided she must have been right. Of course, around that same time, he went through a period of time when he was sullen and quiet, so unlike his usual exuberance, but then that, too, passed. He acts as though he has been fine ever since.

But she can't help wondering.

"Mama," he said to her only three months ago. "I don't like my name."

She'd been so taken aback. "Why ever not, darling?"

"It doesn't fit." She had told herself she didn't understand what he meant, but secretly, she thought perhaps she did. The name she and John had given him could not be taken for anything but masculine. He'd frowned at her very seriously as he continued. "I thought about it and thought about it, and I decided I wanna be called Stiles." Then he'd looked at her with those very wide eyes, the same shade as her own. The same shade as her mother's and her grandmother's. He'd asked, "Is that okay?"

"Of course it is," she replied, smoothing his hair back and then pulling him into a hug that had him squirming. "Of course it is, my Stiles."

Now, she stands at the little kitchen window above the sink and watches him play out in the backyard with his new best friend Scott. She thinks they're playing some version of knights and princesses. She thinks Stiles is playing the part of the princess, with all the dramatic swooning and curtsies.

Her husband comes up behind her, just home from work. He wraps his arms around her waist and kisses her cheek. She smiles up at him.

"Melissa dropped Scott off for the afternoon and evening while she works," she explains, though he's surely already deduced as much.

"It's good to see Stiles finally make a friend," John says, resting his chin on her shoulder as they watch the boys play. He huffs a laugh when he realizes the game. "Has Scott saved our son from a dragon yet?" he asks.

"Not yet." She's still smiling, but now something is worrying at her heart, and she knows it won't let go until she addresses it. So finally she turns to John, because she has to ask him. "John, what if our son…what if there was something different about him? What if he was not like other children?"

John's eyes trail over her face, trying to parse what she's saying. His fingers follow, grazing her cheek and then trailing into her hair. "I'm not sure what you mean, Clauds," he admits.

She looks down, taking his other hand and bringing it to her heart, where she holds it for a long moment. "What if he came to you tomorrow and told you he didn't want to be a boy?" she finally says as plainly as she can. "I don't…it's just a suspicion, he hasn't said so to me, but I wonder, sometimes. It's not so uncommon a thing. Perhaps I'm reading too much into it, but I worry, John. I worry for him so much sometimes."

When she looks up, John's brows are furrowed the way they always are when he's thinking about something very seriously, but when he meets her gaze, his face clears, and his free hand cups her cheek. "He's our son, Claudia. He's the best parts of you and me. If what you said ever happened, it wouldn't change a damn thing. Not here." He taps her chest, where she still has one of his hands pressed, and then brings it to his own chest and taps there. "And not here."

She breathes out a soft sigh, relieved. John always knows how to put her at ease. "I just wanted to be sure," she says quietly. "Just in case—"

"You have nothing to worry about," he promises. "Our kid is strong and bright and perfect no matter what." He kisses her behind her ear, against her curls, and brings his arms around her again. "Now how about you?" he asks. "How are you feeling today?"

"Better," she tells him. "No headache." It's only a tiny lie. She has a small one, but she managed to sleep last night, so it's nothing like it's been the last few days. And she doesn't want to worry John more than she knows she already has. "Why don't you call the boys in to wash up, and I'll finish getting supper ready?"

He kisses her lightly before he goes, and she watches as he stomps outside, flapping his arms and roaring like a great big goofy dragon. Scott fiercely brandishes a twig at him, and John scoops Stiles up into his arms while Stiles yells "Save me, save me!" between giggles.

Claudia smiles helplessly at the picture they make.

No matter what, prince or princess or whatever else he chooses to be, that is her Stiles, and he will always be the most precious thing in her world.


End file.
